How a Winery Crushed Its Content Marketing With Video

Do you wish your videos made more of a difference for your business? Do you find yourself running out of ideas for videos your audience will love? Ever wonder what it takes to make a video so good that news outlets can’t wait to get their hands on it?

Before: ‘Just a bottle shot in a magazine’

Many established businesses face the conundrum Jordan Winery found itself facing a decade ago. The almost 40-year-old brand had not kept up with the times. The winery competed with only 225 businesses in 1972. Over the next four decades, its competition increased by over 2,000%.

During most of those years, “we hadn’t changed the way we told our story,” Lisa says. “We were a faceless brand. Faceless brands are the next dinosaur.”

In 2007, Lisa joined this family-owned California winery because her colleagues were ready to update the way this luxury brand spoke and behaved. It was time to stop coming across as stuffy.

Take this bottle shot from the 1990s. “There’s a hunk of cheese on a barrel,” Lisa says. “I don’t know how the wine got in the glass. There’s no plate, no fork. Where are the people? This kind of marketing makes wine intimidating.”

Lisa’s challenge was to make old-school cool. In those days, Jordan Winery was known for its food, hospitality, and elegant wines, not for its people. No one knew the Jordan family. The company image was “just a bottle shot in a magazine.” Lisa set out to capture the personalities behind the wine.

After: ‘Way to go, Jordan! Super fun video’

Video was a natural medium to help this business differentiate itself from the competition in part because few wineries were making videos a decade ago. Besides, video is a natural medium for telling stories about people. “Bringing our people to life was important to us,” Lisa says. “Motion is important to message.”

Rather than pay to advertise its content, the marketing team focuses on creating videos captivating enough to earn coverage on the news and in industry media. For example, Jordan’s popular parody videos, Despacito Embotellado (“bottling slowly”) and Shape of Cab, were featured on Bay Area news stations and covered in several internationally known wine magazines.

While it’s impossible to trace the exact impact of the videos, CEO and second-generation vintner John Jordan sees the marketing payoff when all the indicators rise together: sales, visits, social media interactions, earned media, direct sales, and per-person spending.

The best way to get a sense of how far Jordan Winery has come from its bottle-shot-in-a-magazine days is to sample its videos. People who view these videos post comments like this one (from someone who goes by the name Red Agent): “Way to go, Jordan! Super fun video. Very nicely done …”

Disclaimer: CMI bears no responsibility for any of our blog readers, fans, contributors, staff, or other humans associated therewith quitting their jobs and applying to work at Jordan Winery after watching the following videos.

Jordan Winery uses egg whites to soften the tannins in red wine, an Old-World practice that surprises visitors. Rather than create a blog post explaining the process, Lisa’s video crew followed the Jordan staff to the farm where they get the eggs. “We basically walk people through what we do and why. And we make it fun,” she says. “You get to see what we do with all the egg whites. As for the yolks, you see us making ice cream when we’re done.”

Explore topics that hit people where they live

You want videos to address topics related to your expertise that hit home with audiences. For Jordan Winery, one such topic is kitchen gadgets. In this video, Jordan Winery executive chef Todd Knoll recommends gifts for cooks – the best and affordable kitchen tools for home cooks, chefs, and foodies. This video is posted on the Jordan YouTube channel as well as featured in a blog post.

In this video, Jordan Winery cellar master Patrick Fallon gives a peek into the making of oak barrels that will be used to age wine. Here, you see the barrel makers (coopers) in action, from bending the wood staves to toasting the barrels. Yes, toasting the barrels. As in setting them over a fire like so many giant hollowed-out marshmallows. It’s a thing. Who knew?

Parody a popular music video

Nothing draws people like humor. Imagine what might happen if your team were to indulge its inner Weird Al and spin off a true-to-your-brand version of a hit music video. You might discover what Jordan Winery has discovered: People love a good parody.

“Since parody is a protected class,” Lisa explains, “the video team can take other people’s content and create something new around it without having to worry about legal implications.”

Here’s the winery’s parody, Despacito Embotellado (bottling slowly) of Despacito, one of the biggest hit songs of summer 2017. If you can translate the Jordan lyrics into English, please share in a comment; I’d love to know what this creative crew is singing.

Share bloopers and outtakes

Who doesn’t love a blooper or a chance to check out fun footage that didn’t make the primary cut? Share your lighter side with the world. Here’s a compilation of snippets Jordan Winery left out of its official videos in 2017.

Conclusion

When it comes to digital media, nothing conveys your brand’s personality like video. Next time you’re looking for a killer video idea for your brand, consider things that have helped Jordan Winery crush content marketing:

Highlight the unexpected.

Explore a topic that hits people where they live.

Go behind the scenes.

Parody a popular music video.

Share bloopers and outtakes.

Then come back and leave a comment. Share your success stories with your fellow marketers. We all love a good video.

Here’s an excerpt from Lisa’s talk:

Get inspired and get practical advice on how to create brand videos that garner an engaged following and much more at Content Marketing World 2018, Sept. 4-7 in Cleveland, Ohio. Register using code BLOG100 to save $100.

Cover image by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute

Author: Marcia Riefer Johnston

Marcia Riefer Johnston is the author of Word Up! How to Write Powerful Sentences and Paragraphs (And Everything You Build from Them) and You Can Say That Again: 750 Redundant Phrases to Think Twice About. As a member of the CMI team, she serves as Managing Editor of Content Strategy. She has run a technical-writing business for … a long time. She taught technical writing in the Engineering School at Cornell University and studied literature and creative writing in the Syracuse University Masters program under Raymond Carver and Tobias Wolff. She lives in Portland, Oregon. Follow her on Twitter @MarciaRJohnston. For more, see Writing.Rocks.